By 1986 I’d developed some strong views about education and how they related to chess.
Something else happened as well. I was sitting in my London office one Feburary day wondering how I was ever going to be able to leave a job with no prospects of promotion or doing anything else when the phone rang.
It was my old friend Mike Fox, calling from Birmingham. “This phone call will change your life”, he said. And it did.
He’d been commissioned by Faber & Faber to write a book about chess trivia and invited me to join him as co-author. This would become The Complete Chess Addict (1987) and later The Even More Complete Chess Addict (1993), as well as the Addicts’ Corner column in CHESS which ran for 14 years. I decided that I could make as much money in less time by working freelance, while having time to help Mike with researching and writing the book and having more time to develop RJCC.
In order to improve Richmond Junior Club the first thing I wanted was to be able to find out everything I could about how every member of the club played chess, so that I could provide individual advice to all children and parents.
My view also was that, when teaching younger children and, more generally, less experienced players, everything we did had to happen for a very specific reason. I didn’t want to provide random lessons demonstrating random brilliant games to a random collection of children. Nor did I want to push children into doing too much too soon: using clocks and scoresheets and taking part in external tournaments before they were ready.
What I did (some of this was explained last time) was this:
- I split the club into two sections: a morning group lasting two hours for primary school children, and an afternoon group lasting three hours for secondary school children, to which stronger primary school players would also be invited.
- I introduced an internal grading system which was revised every few weeks, including all internal games (excluding blitz) so that I could select teams objectively in order of strength and identify when morning group players were ready to move up to the afternoon group. This included a very crude but reasonably effective measure to avoid grading deflation, based on the principle that, at any point, our members will either be improving or stationary.
- Although I’d been collecting scoresheets of games played in our tournaments and training days for almost a decade, I now collected all afternoon group games (excluding blitz again) and played through them myself at home. There was no need to collect games played in the morning group as they were played at a lower level and usually decided by the number of pieces left en prise.
Beyond that, I wanted to ensure that our members would be able to try out a wide range of different openings, play games at different time controls, and play different opponents every week.
The primary school age children in our morning group were divided into divisions according to their internal grade. When new members joined we’d do a quick assessment. If they were obviously beginners they’d start in the lowest division. If we already knew about them because they’d played in one of our tournaments we’d already have given them a grade so would be able to put them in the correct division. Otherwise, we’d give them a quick friendly game against a player in a middle division and see how they got on.
I also used the same divisional system in schools for many years to ensure that children played different opponents of a similar strength to themselves every week (until the divisions were changed). This system also catered for the fact that some children played fast and would get through several games in one session while others played slowly and would only play one game. I found this worked much better than a Swiss tournament where everyone played one game a week and children who had finished their games would sometimes interfere with the games still in progress.
Every few weeks, by which time some of the faster and more regular attenders would have played most of the other players in their division, we ran the results through the grading program and restarted the divisions, with the most successful players gaining promotion.
We knew that if we taught children opening principles and then left them to their own devices many games would start with boring Giuoco Pianissimos or Spanish Four Knights, which, because they led to closed positions with few opportunities for pawn breaks, were only superficially good for less experienced players.
So we developed a system which would enable children in this group to experience a range of different openings and position types. Our first rule was that all games in the morning group would start with the moves 1. e4 e5. Over the course of the year (September to July) we’d work through the major open games, starting with simple Four Knights type positions and gradually moving through to the King’s Gambit and (the favourite of many of our members) the Danish Gambit. We’d give a short introductory talk before the games started and expect players to start the game with the moves displayed on the demonstration board.
Ray Keene’s column in the Times always provided a simple tactical puzzle on Saturdays to encourage readers to compete for a prize, and we’d display this on the demo board so that children could attempt to solve it as they arrived. We’d go through the solution in front of the whole class before introducing them to the opening of the week.
We also wanted to ensure that children were introduced to clocks and scoresheets at the appropriate time in their chess development to prepare them for promotion to the afternoon group. As each of these adds a level of complexity to an already difficult game we wanted to do them one at a time, so players in the second division were asked to play their games on clocks (30 minutes per player per game) and, when they reached the top division they were required to notate their games (down to the last five minutes) as well.
For some of our members, the Morning Group was all they wanted and they’d drop out after a year or two. But others would be ambitious to play competitively and move up to the Afternoon Group, which was designed, in the first instance, for players of round about 1000 to 1500 strength. We assumed that, at that point, they’d move on to bigger and better things, but, as our system developed, we were attracting players up to getting on for 2000 strength.
In order to give our Afternoon Group members the chance to try out a wide range of different openings we developed a system involving games using set openings.
It took a few years for this to be fully implemented, but what we did was to divide all the major openings into ten groups, featuring one group every half term. We built a three-year cycle, with some groups happening every year, some twice in three years and some once in three years.
We also wanted to provide a range of different time limits. For younger players up to about 1500 who tend to play fast there’s no real need for slower games, while we also decided that anything less than 10 minutes per player would lead to too many blunders. So our main termly structure eventually looked like this:
- Freestyle 30 minute games (3 games in the 3 hour session)
- Freestyle 10 minute blitz tournament (in groups with promotion/relegation)
- Coach and play – introductory lesson on the openings to be played over the next few weeks followed by two 45 minute games, consulting the opening books
- 10 minute blitz tournament (in groups with promotion/relegation) with opening variation picked out of the ‘hat’)
- 30 minute games (3 games in the 3 hour session) using the set openings
Over the year we’d run 12 sessions with 3 30-minute games (at first in groups of 4 (quad tournaments) or 6 (Scheveningen system tournaments) – six freestyle and 6 with set openings. All games would be recorded down to the last five minutes and all scoresheets would be handed it. We used duplicate scoresheets for this purpose so that they all had a copy of their games to take home. I’d then play through all the games again at home, and, once ChessBase became available I’d enter them all into a database.
We’d also run 11 sessions with 10-minute games (as many as they could play in the time available), five freestyle and six with set openings.
We’d run 6 Coach and Play sessions to introduce the openings to be played in the next rapid and blitz sessions.
We also ran one simultaneous display a term. Sometimes we’d use visiting masters, sometimes our own coaches, members of our parent chess club or former RJCC members. We considered these a vital part of our programme for several reasons:
- They promoted chess as an adult game, not just a game for young children
- They gave our members the chance to meet and play against titled players
- They forced our members to slow down and think while the simul giver was going round the room moving on the other boards
Other weeks were filled up with activities such as training games at slower time limits, endgame practice and puzzle solving, while the last week of each term gave our members the chance to enjoy chess variants such as Exchange (Bughouse) and Kriegspiel.
The idea was that each week would have one activity, which would vary from week to week. Very different from the way most junior clubs run, with two activities (lesson and game) a week and the same structure most weeks.
If you want to use our methods, our stationery (now rebranded as Chess Heroes rather than RJCC) is available to download here and here while our opening books (recently updated slightly to include the currently popular London System) can be downloaded here.
Coincidentally, several other important things happened at about this time.
A local primary school, Sheen Mount, appointed a new Headteacher, Jane Lawrence, who was passionate about introducing all her pupils to chess, teaching them the moves and giving them the chance to play competitively at school every day. Many of her pupils joined Richmond Junior Club, and, as you’ll see, two of them, Richard Bates and Tom Hinks-Edwards, went on to become International Masters.
Ray Cannon, whom I vaguely knew from the London chess circuit, brought his young son Richard along to the club. Ray was (and still is) an excellent chess coach and his views on chess teaching were (and still are) very similar to mine, and he soon started to play a vital role in the club, helping with the Afternoon Group as well as spending his Sundays visiting tournaments and passing on the results of our members so that I could incorporate them in our internal grading list.
The other player who played an invaluable part in our successes for many years was Gavin Wall, later an IM, one of our early members who, on returning from University joined our coaching team, working mostly in the Morning Group. Gavin and Ray were both integral to the club for many years: I can’t thank them enough.
Over the next few years we again became very strong, and the system we used in the Afternoon Group undoubtedly played its part.
As it happened, the summer of 1986 witnessed our first ever British Champion when Irfan Nathoo took the national Under 9 title.
Here’s a game from later in the year. To play through this or any other game in this article click on any move and a pop-up window will appear.
[Event “RJCC Grading”]
[Date “1986.11.01”]
[White “McGrath, Christopher”]
[Black “Nathoo, Irfan”]
[Result “0-1”]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 4. Nc3 Bg4 5. d3 Nge7 6. b3 a6 7. Bc4 Nd4 8. Bb2 g6 9. h3 Bxf3 10. gxf3 Bg7 11. Nd5 c6 12. Nxe7 Qxe7 13. Bxd4 exd4 14. b4 d5 15. Bb3 Qxb4+ 16. Kf1 dxe4 17. fxe4 a5 18. Rb1 Qd6 19. Qf3 O-O 20. Kg2 a4 21. Bc4 b5 22. Bxb5 cxb5 23. Rxb5 Qc6 24. Rb2 Qc3 25. Rhb1 a3 26. Rb7 Qxc2 27. Ra1 Rab8 28. Ra7 Rb2 29. Rxa3 Bh8 30. Ra7 Qe2 31. Qg3 Be5 32. Qf3 Qc2 0-1
With our new system in place we were able to promote the club in the local press, announcing an exciting season ahead.
04 September 1986
We were actively looking for sponsorship at this point. We received donations from two local charities at various times, and here we found sponsorship from the Richmond branch of Midland Bank.
We were also competing successfully in team competitions against other London junior clubs. Barnet Knights, of course, are still going strong today.
One of our new members was a talented Scottish junior, Jonathan Rowson, who had moved from Aberdeen into the same road as me. He used to come round to my house for a game after school, but sadly for us he didn’t stay in the area very long.
In this game from one of our monthly quad tournaments, he demonstrated his class by outplaying Richard Bates in a pawn ending.
[Event “RJCC Quads”]
[Date “1988.01.16”]
[White “Bates, Richard”]
[Black “Rowson, Jonathan”]
[Result “0-1”]
1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nc6 3. Nf3 Bg4 4. d5 Ne5 5. Nbd2 e6 6. dxe6 fxe6 7. Be2 Nf6 8. Nxe5 Bxe2 9. Qxe2 dxe5 10. O-O Qd7 11. b3 O-O-O 12. Nf3 Be7 13. Bb2 Bd6 14. Nxe5 Bxe5 15. Bxe5 Rhf8 16. Rad1 Qc6 17. Rxd8+ Rxd8 18. Bxf6 gxf6 19. Rd1 Rxd1+ 20. Qxd1 Qxe4 21. g3 b6 22. Qd3 Qxd3 23. cxd3 Kd7 24. Kg2 Kd6 25. Kf3 f5 26. h4 e5 27. Ke3 h5 28. f4 c5 29. Kf3 Kd5 30. fxe5 Kxe5 31. Ke3 b5 32. a3 a5 33. Ke2 f4 34. a4 bxa4 35. gxf4+ Kxf4 36. bxa4 Kg4 37. Ke3 Kxh4 38. Ke4 Kg3 39. Kd5 h4 40. Kxc5 h3 41. d4 h2 42. d5 h1=Q 43. d6 Qc1+ 44. Kb6 Qc4 45. d7 Qd4+ 46. Kc7 0-1
During this period I was doing a lot of private tuition. Jonathan was by no means the only one of our members who would visit my house for lessons, either on a regular or an occasional basis. Judging from both individual and team results it must have had some effect on them.
By 1989 Sheen Mount players were making names for themselves on the national stage. Here are future IM Richard Bates and Tom Davey playing for England’s Primary Schools team in a match against Scotland.
Also in June 1989 we were invited to play a match against a visiting team from Arizona. As we had so many strong players by now we split our players into three teams and played a four-way match.
Here’s Richard Cannon’s game against the American board 1.
[Event “RJCC v Arizona”]
[Date “1989.06.25”]
[White “Cannon, Richard”]
[Black “Fazio, Brian”]
[Result “1-0”]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. exd5 exd5 5. Nf3 Bd6 6. Be2 O-O 7. O-O Re8 8. Bg5 c6 9. Qd2 Bf5 10. Rfe1 Nbd7 11. Rad1 Qc7 12. Bd3 Bxd3 13. Qxd3 h6 14. Bh4 Be7 15. Bg3 Bd6 16. Bxd6 Qxd6 17. h3 Nb6 18. Rxe8+ Rxe8 19. Re1 Rxe1+ 20. Nxe1 Qf4 21. Ne2 Qe4 22. Qxe4 Nxe4 23. f3 Nd6 24. Kf2 Nbc4 25. Nd3 Nf5 26. b3 Ncd6 27. g4 Ne7 28. Ke3 g5 29. f4 Kg7 30. Ng3 Kg6 31. f5+ Kh7 32. Ne5 f6 33. Nd7 Nb5 34. Nxf6+ Kg7 35. Nd7 Kf7 36. Ne5+ Kf6 37. Nh5# 1-0
By the summer of 1989 it was time to move. The church in central Richmond where we met was being redeveloped so we had to find new premises. Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club moved to London Welsh Rugby Club, while Richmond Junior Club found a new home in a large Victorian house in East Twickenham, where we’d meet for more than 15 years.
We also set up a separate group for older children enabling us to enter teams in the Thames Valley League. We played our home matches in Friday evening sessions and scheduled our away matches, as far as possible, during the school holidays.
Jane Lawrence was now running Richmond teams in the English Primary Schools Chess Association inter-area competitions, with players from schools around the Borough taking part. Andrew Bamford, like many of the players in these teams, was a member of Richmond Junior Club.
In this game from our 1990 Under 11 Championship a speculative sacrifice proved successful.
[Event “Richmond U11 Ch (3)”]
[Date “1990.07.07”]
[White “Rich, Max”]
[Black “Bamford, Andrew”]
[Result “0-1”]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. d3 Bd6 6. h3 Nf6 7. O-O O-O 8. Bg5 h6 9. Bh4 Be6 10. Re1 g5 11. Bg3 Nd7 12. d4 Qf6 13. d5 Bxh3 14. gxh3 cxd5 15. exd5 Qf5 16. Kh2 e4 17. Bxd6 cxd6 18. Nxg5 Qxf2+ 19. Kh1 hxg5 20. Nc3 Qf3+ 21. Kh2 Qf4+ 22. Kg2 Nf6 23. Qd4 Nh5 24. Nxe4 f5 25. Qd1 Qh4 26. Nf2 Nf4+ 27. Kf3 Nxh3 28. Nxh3 Qxh3+ 29. Kf2 Qh2+ 30. Kf1 Qh3+ 31. Kf2 f4 32. Rh1 Qg3+ 33. Kf1 f3 34. Qd2 Rae8 35. Rh2 Re2 36. Qd3 Rxh2 37. Qg6+ Kh8 38. Rd1 Rh1# 0-1
Wanting to provide top level coaching for our strongest players, we appointed GM Daniel King as our club professional in 1990. We were also able to enter a third team in the Thames Valley League.
In just a few years since 1986 the club had made tremendous progress, and we were able to bill ourselves, without fear of contradiction, as ‘England’s leading club for young players’. This is Chris A Baker, who hasn’t played competitively for a long time, not to be confused with long-standing Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club member Chris B Baker, who was also a pupil at Hampton School, or indeed IM Chris W Baker.
In this game Tom had the chance to play a Greek Gift sacrifice against an opponent with insufficient experience of the French Defence.
[Event “Richmond Junior Championship (1)”]
[Date “1992.07.04”]
[White “Hinks-Edwards, Thomas”]
[Black “Boase, Mansur”]
[Result “1-0”]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 Ne7 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 O-O 7. Nf3 b6 8. Bd3 c5 9. Bxh7+ Kxh7 10. Ng5+ Kg8 11. Qh5 Re8 12. Qxf7+ Kh8 13. Qh5+ Kg8 14. Qh7+ Kf8 15. h4 Nf5 16. g4 Nh6 17. Qh8+ Ng8 18. h5 Qd7 19. h6 Ke7 20. h7 Nh6 21. Qxg7+ Kd8 22. h8=Q Rxh8 23. Qxh8+ Kc7 24. Rxh6 Qc6 25. Qg7+ Bd7 26. Nxe6+ Kb7 27. Nd8+ Ka6 28. Nxc6 Bxc6 29. dxc5 bxc5 30. Qc7 Kb5 31. a4+ Kc4 32. Rxc6 Nxc6 33. Qxc6 Rh8 34. Bd2 Rh1+ 35. Ke2 Rxa1 36. Qb5# 1-0
And here’s Chris Baker, beating one of his regular rivals in a club game.
[Event “RJCC Quads 7-3-92”]
[Date “1992.03.07”]
[White “Baker, Christopher A”]
[Black “Bamford, Andrew”]
[Result “1-0”]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Be2 O-O 6. Bg5 h6 7. Be3 e5 8. d5 Ne8 9. Qd2 Kh7 10. f4 f5 11. Nf3 fxe4 12. Nxe4 Bf5 13. Nf2 e4 14. Nd4 Qe7 15. g4 Bd7 16. O-O-O c6 17. h4 cxd5 18. cxd5 Na6 19. h5 Rc8+ 20. Kb1 gxh5 21. g5 Nec7 22. Nb3 b5 23. Rxh5 Be8 24. Rh2 b4 25. Ng4 h5 26. Nf2 Qd7 27. Bxh5 Bxh5 28. Rxh5+ Kg8 29. Rdh1 Qa4 30. Bd4 Nb5 31. Bxg7 Kxg7 32. Rh7+ Kg8 33. Nxe4 Rc4 34. Qh2 1-0
Every summer during this period the parents of our stronger players got together to book accommodation for the British Championships. From 1991 onwards we were rewarded with successes like these:
1991 Richard Bates U14 shared, Luke McShane U9
1992 James Clifford/Luke McShane U14 Andrew Bamford U11
1993 Tom Hinks-Edwards U16 shared
One of our favourite simul givers at the time was Ukrainian IM Petr Marusenko, a regular visit to Hastings (he’s there again this year) who would drop in to visit us after the congress.
In this game James Clifford outplayed him in the ending.
[Event “RJCC Simul 18-1-92”]
[Date “1992.01.18”]
[White “Marusenko, Petr”]
[Black “Clifford, James”]
[Result “0-1”]
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. O-O O-O 5. d4 d6 6. c4 Nbd7 7. Nc3 c5 8. d5 Re8 9. Bg5 Nb6 10. Qd3 Bg4 11. h3 Bxf3 12. Bxf3 Nfd7 13. Bf4 h6 14. b3 g5 15. Bd2 Ne5 16. Qc2 Nxf3+ 17. exf3 Qc8 18. Kg2 Nd7 19. f4 f6 20. fxg5 fxg5 21. Rae1 Nf8 22. Re2 e6 23. dxe6 Rxe6 24. Rfe1 Rxe2 25. Rxe2 Qc6+ 26. Nd5 Re8 27. Rxe8 Qxe8 28. Be3 Nd7 29. Qf5 Qf7 30. Qxf7+ Kxf7 31. Kf3 a6 32. a4 Ne5+ 33. Ke2 Ke6 34. Bd2 Nc6 35. Be3 Na5 36. b4 Nxc4 37. Nc7+ Kd7 38. Nd5 cxb4 39. Nxb4 Nb2 40. a5 Bc3 41. Nd5 Bxa5 42. Nf6+ Ke6 43. Ng8 Bd8 44. Nxh6 a5 45. f4 gxf4 46. gxf4 Be7 47. f5+ Ke5 48. Kf3 Bf8 49. Ng4+ Kxf5 50. Bd4 Nc4 51. Ke2 Ne5 52. Nf2 Nf7 53. Nd3 Ke4 54. Bb2 b5 55. h4 Ne5 56. Nf2+ Kf5 57. h5 Kg5 58. Ne4+ Kxh5 59. Nf6+ Kg6 60. Nd5 Nc4 61. Bd4 Kf5 0-1
Richard Bates, now at Tiffin School, continued to be successful in 1992, and was rated one of the world’s top players of his age.
But by that time we had a new member whose feats would outshine even Richard’s. This was Luke McShane, who, at the age of only 8, took the World Under 10 Championship in 1992.
Luke scored victories against future stars such as Bacrot, Aronian and Grischuk in this event. He was perhaps fortunate to escape from lost positions in the first two of these games, but here’s his win against the Russian representative.
[Event “World Championship U10 Duisburg: R6”]
[Date “1992.??.??”]
[White “McShane, Luke”]
[Black “Grischuk, Alexander”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “C09”]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. exd5 exd5 5. Ngf3 Nc6 6. Bb5 Bd6 7. O-O Nge7 8. dxc5 Bxc5 9. Nb3 Bd6 10. Bg5 O-O 11. c3 Bg4 12. Be2 Qc7 13. h3 Bh5 14. Nfd4 Bxe2 15. Qxe2 Rfe8 16. Qh5 Bf4 17. Rad1 h6 18. Bxf4 Qxf4 19. Qf3 Qg5 20. Qd3 Ne5 21. Qb5 N7g6 22. Ne2 Nf3+ 23. Kh1 Nfh4 24. Rg1 Qf5 25. Nbd4 Qxf2 26. Rdf1 Qe3 27. Qxb7 Ne5 28. Qb3 Nd3 29. Qxd5 Nf2+ 30. Kh2 Rad8 31. Qh5 Re4 32. Ng3 Qf4 33. Rxf2 Qxf2 34. Nxe4 1-0
In January 1993 we were privileged to host a junior team from Kiev (now Kiiv), whose top players were, as you might imagine, very strong. We arranged four events: a simul given by Daniel King, a match against a team from Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club, a match against a Richmond Junior Club team and a match against a junior team representing the Southern Counties Chess Union, which included three RJCC players.
Another of our very strong players, Aleksandar Trifunovic, great nephew of Grandmaster Petar Trifunovic, scored an exciting win on board three of the RJCC v Kiev match. His opponent here is now an American IM.
[Event “RJCC v Kiev Juniors”]
[Date “1993.01.24”]
[White “Zilberstein, Dmitry”]
[Black “Trifunovic, Aleksandar”]
[Result “0-1”]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. Nc3 d6 5. Bf4 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7 7. Be2 c6 8. O-O Qe8 9. h3 e5 10. Bh2 Qe7 11. Qb3 Ne8 12. Qa3 f6 13. b4 Kh8 14. b5 Nb6 15. Rfd1 Qf7 16. c5 dxc5 17. dxc5 Nd5 18. Bc4 Be6 19. Bxd5 Bxd5 20. e4 Bc4 21. bxc6 bxc6 22. Qa4 Rc8 23. Rab1 Be6 24. Rb2 g5 25. Ne1 h5 26. Nd3 g4 27. hxg4 hxg4 28. f4 gxf3 29. gxf3 Qh5 30. Ne1 Bh6 31. Rd3 Rg8+ 32. Rg2 Rc7 33. Ne2 Rcg7 34. Bg3 Bh3 35. Kf2 Bxg2 36. Nxg2 Qh3 37. f4 exf4 38. Nexf4 Bxf4 39. Nxf4 Qh6 40. Ne2 Rb7 41. Qa3 Qg6 42. e5 Re7 43. Qc3 Reg7 44. Rf3 f5 45. Rf4 Qe6 0-1
Richard Bates scored a win and a draw against the top two Kiev players. He drew with Spartak Vysochin, now a grandmaster, in the RJCC match and won this game from the SCCU Juniors match.
[Event “SCCU Juniors v Kiev Juniors”]
[Date “1993.01.24”]
[White “Ianovsky, Alexander”]
[Black “Bates, Richard”]
[Result “0-1”]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 O-O 6. Be3 e5 7. d5 Nh5 8. Qd2 f5 9. O-O-O Nd7 10. Nge2 a6 11. Kb1 Ndf6 12. h3 b5 13. g4 Nf4 14. Ng3 b4 15. Nce2 Nxe2 16. Nxe2 fxe4 17. fxe4 Nxe4 18. Qe1 Ng5 19. Qxb4 a5 20. Qa3 Ne4 21. Nc3 Ng3 22. Rg1 Rf3 23. Ne2 Nxf1 24. Rdxf1 Qf6 25. Rxf3 Qxf3 26. Ng3 e4 27. Bd2 Rb8 28. Qxf3 Rxb2+ 29. Kc1 exf3 30. Rf1 Rxa2 31. Rxf3 Ba6 32. Ne4 Bxc4 33. Nf6+ Bxf6 34. Rxf6 Bxd5 35. Bh6 Bf7 36. Rf3 Re2 37. Rc3 Re7 38. Bg5 Rd7 39. Ra3 Kg7 40. Rxa5 c5 41. Kd2 Bd5 42. Bf4 Kf7 43. h4 Bf3 44. g5 Ke6 45. Ra6 Bg4 46. Ke3 Kd5 47. Kd2 Ke6 48. Kc3 Bf3 49. Kd3 Bb7 50. Rb6 Kd5 51. Bh2 Bc6 52. Bg3 Ra7 53. Bf4 Ra4 54. Ke3 c4 55. Rb8 c3 56. Rb1 Re4+ 57. Kf3 c2 58. Rc1 Ba4 59. Bxd6 Rxh4 60. Bf4 Rxf4+ 61. Kxf4 Kd4 62. Kf3 Kd3 63. Ra1 Kd2 64. Ra2 Bb3 65. Rb2 Kc3 0-1
As a result of his performance in the World Junior Championship, Luke was given the opportunity to play a game against Garry Kasparov, in London to discuss the arrangements for his forthcoming World Championship match against Nigel Short.
Here’s the game.
[Event “Casual game: London”]
[Date “1993.02.17”]
[Result “0-1”]
[White “McShane, Luke”]
[Black “Kasparov, Garry”]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Nb3 Be6 7. Be3 a6 8. Qd2 Nbd7 9. O-O-O b5 10. f3 Nb6 11. Na5 Qc7 12. g4 Nfd7 13. Nd5 Bxd5 14. exd5 Rc8 15. Nc6 Nxd5 16. Qxd5 Qxc6 17. Qxc6 Rxc6 18. Bd3 Be7 19. g5 d5 20. h4 d4 21. Be4 Rc7 22. Bf2 Nc5 23. Bg3 f6 24. gxf6 Bxf6 25. Rxd4 exd4 26. Bxc7 Kd7 27. Bf4 Nxe4 28. fxe4 Re8 29. Re1 Bxh4 30. Rh1 g5 31. Bd2 Rxe4 32. c3 dxc3 33. Bxc3 Ke6 34. Kd2 Kf5 35. Kd3 Re6 36. Bd2 h5 37.Be3 Kg6 38. Ke2 Bg3 39. Kf3 g4+ 40. Kxg3 Rxe3+ 41. Kf4 Rf3+ 42. Ke4 Kg5 43. Rd1 Rf4+ 44. Ke3 g3 45. Rd5+ Kg4 46. Rd8 Rf5 47. Rd4+ Kh3 48. Ke4 Rf8 49. Rd1 g2 50. Ke3 Rf1 0-1
In May 1993, buoyed by these successes, we were asked to be involved in the Richmond Chess Initiative, which, in essence, did very much what Chess in Schools & Communities is doing now, but on a local rather than national level.
Children would learn all the right moves, but would they play them in the right order? You’ll find out in the next part of the history of Richmond Junior Chess Club.
Chess with Richard 